Conventionally, various measures have been taken for enhancing availability of the communication between applications that operate on the respective nodes connected via a network and the like. The communication between applications is to be referred to simply as “inter-application communications”.
In relation to the above technique, a transmission path switching system during a trouble in broadcast communication has been known. According to the system, trouble detection in a transmission path of a network system engaged in broadcast communication and the switching of transmission paths are performed for realizing high reliability in the network system performing the broadcast communication. In addition, there is a known distributed-type control apparatus that reduces communication load and performs the communication of various messages reliably from the control apparatus to an operator station.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 04-207338
[Patent document 2] Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 06-253373